Rosa gallica L.
Deciduous shrub that can reach up to 1.5 metres in height. The stems are straight and flexible, with small, thin hooked spines and glandular hairs. The imparipinnate leaves have three to seven bluish-green leaflets. The flowers are simple or semi-double, mostly solitary, with a corolla with five petals (5-20), thicker and more leathery than other old roses, pink in colour and strongly fragrant. The fruits, globular to ovoid in shape, are orange-brown when ripe. The plant forms large clusters and is easy to extract from ‘suckers’. Populations have been found in seven localities in the province of Albacete, some with a large number of plants, as is the case in the village of La Breña (Higueruela). The popular name for this plant is rose of Alexandria.
